moolah-lah-lah

As a planter of trees, I'm a part of a big corporation - I act out a small part of the process by which lumber companies fulfill their legal obligations so they can cut more trees. Most of Canada's already been logged once, and lumber is a sustainable resource when managed/farmed properly, but that doesn't make me less of a cog in the Machine. This pushes me into a fair bit of self-ponderation and justification. I make good money, and with my thoughts being the way they are regarding poverty and wealth, I'm forced to consider my understanding of money so I can lead the thirty-plus people under my tutelage in non-destructive directions.

So, here are some thoughts I have on money:

First, I think that regardless of our " economic status" we should hold our money very loosely, recognizing that wealth is fleeting.

Second, I think that we should live as though we really believed that none of our money is actually our own - that we are merely stewards.

Third, I think that we should recognize that as stewards, we are accountable for every last penny, and that we should therefore learn to be wise with money.

Fourth, I think that we should work hard to learn the character of the Source of all good things so that we can know what it is we should do with any wealth we might be fortunate enough to garner.

Fifth and finally, I think we should struggle to remain humble and to acknowledge that our wealth is NOT the result of any virtue or inherent goodness of our own. Twenty percent of the world's population lives on eighty percent of the world's resources. Remember that SIX HUNDRED MILLION children grow up in extreme poverty, through no specific choice of their own. Hard-working, morally-minded people are often poor, while wicked, lazy people are often rich - it's a question of circumstances.

We need to be wise and discerning, but whenever our desire to plan for the future gets in the way of our ability to "look not to our own needs but first to the needs of others", then we have missed out on real, eternity-minded living.

Through all this we should remember that focussing too much on externals like small green paper rectangles is silly, and ultimately anti-Love. It doesn't matter how much someone has, but rather their use of it and their heart attitude towards it. Let him who's never selfishly frittered away resources cast the first cell phone. Or something.